Gunnell is foiled by Dale

Friday 10th August 2007, 11:33AM BST.

Shropshire’s Adrian Gunnell will have to wait to reach his first snooker ranking tournament quarter-final after being dumped out of the Shanghai Masters by Dominic Dale.The 34-year-old from Telford had high hopes of an extended run in the opening event of the season after making serene progress to the last 16.

But he found an inspired Dale – widely regarded as producing the best snooker in the tournament – just too hot to handle.

All the damage was done before the mid-session interval when Dale raced into a 4-0 lead thanks to breaks of 84, 50, 62 and 102.

The Welshman went onto wrap up a 5-1 success, with Gunnell missing out on the consolation prize of a maximum break when he broke down on 88 in the only frame he won.